Recently, with the easing of the COVID-19 social distance rule, the foot traffic of Pusan National University (PNU) has been amazingly increased, and the garbage problem is floating again. 

On May 1st, in front of the PNU Musical theater, the clean campus was changed into a mess due to the garbage someone threw away. The garbage was left on campus for hours. When the wind blew, the garbage was blown away to a different place. The campus trash problem has been a hot issue in the internet community. On the PNU anonymity online community,“Everytime,” an article titled ”What the heck is going on campus” has come up. A scene dispersed with food waste, such as a disposable dishes, is published in the picture, which is included in the article.  The majority of the responses in the post agreed that we should catch the person who threw away the garbage.         

A person willing to clear the garbage was a student of the Music Department. Kang Hyung-Wook (pseudonym) said, "At first, it was hard to handle because it was a lot of trash. I just cleaned it because I can't just leave it alone." Kang cleaned all the garbage near the musical theater for about an hour. 

The overly abundance of dispersed trash all around the PNU campus is not the first time.  Last September, some Chinese food waste, which seemed like the common type that people were eating, were thrown away on the bench of the Economics & International Trade Building. At that time, a person wrote a post titled "I just cleaned because I felt ashamed", written by an anonymous student, became an issue. This article was reported to the media, such as the Joseon- Ilbo, Donga- Ilbo, SBS, and so on. Then it became a controversy about the perception of PNU students.        

Since May 2nd, outdoor mask restrictions have been removed, and the temperature has been rising. Therefore, it is expected that the outdoor activity of students will increase. Additionally, upcoming on May 17th, the event called Daedong-je will be held. Thus, there are some voices that demand the improvement of PNU student’s awareness and the necessity of appropriate action of PNU to prevent the recurrence of trash problems. Regarding this, the Emergency Operation Facility said, “We think the garbage problem should be solved no matter if it’s indoor or outdoor of our school. We are preparing a campaign because the trash problem will occur in the proceeding. We hope that all the members of the school will take a step further, participating in making our school clean again.” 

Reporter Hong Yun-Woo

Translated by Ji Ha-Ram